Fernando Alonso says Ferrari cannot be happy with its performance in the 2014 Formula 1 season-opener, after its cars provisionally finished fifth and eighth in the Australian Grand Prix.

The double world champion spent most of his race stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, but leapfrogged the German by waiting two laps longer to make his final pitstop.

That put him fifth in the provisional classification, but the Spaniard may move up a place if runner-up Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull is excluded for exceeding the fuel-flow limit.

Alonso's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen struggled with tyre-graining on his F14 T and had to battle the Toro Rossos to finish eighth on the road.

"We are not happy with the performance we showed today, we need to improve," Alonso said.

"I was not able to challenge McLaren for the podium positions, Kimi was running between the two Toro Rossos and he won the race here 12 months ago.

"But on the other side it is just the first race. We cannot become crazy about what we saw. We just know we need to work, we are ready to do so and to arrive in Malaysia in two weeks' time in a better position.

"There are concerns but it was good news we finished the race with more or less no problems. The pitstops were very good, we overtook Hulkenberg. There are some positive and negative things, and we must try to improve the negative.

"I think we did a solid race with what we have in our hands at the moment and we need to keep on scoring points until we are a little bit faster."

RAIKKONEN STRUGGLING

Raikkonen suffered several lock-ups in the sister F14 T, as he battled in the lower reaches of the top 10, after getting clipped by Kamui Kobayashi's brakeless Caterham at the first corner.

He said issues with tyre-graining after the first pitstop were to blame for his struggles, rather than braking problems.

"The brakes are fine, we grained the front tyre and then you have no grip on the front," said Raikkonen.

"That is the main issue, [but] it is a combination of things. It is not the easiest thing but I'm sure we will find a solution for it at some point.

"We work until we fix it. If it takes a week or a month, I don't care. This is how it goes sometimes."

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